Wednesday, January 14, 2009

S’pore construction deals hit record high in 2008, sees weaker 2009


Source : Business Times - 14 Jan 2009


The total value of building and construction contracts hit a record high of $34.6 billion in 2008 driven by private sector demand in the first half of the year as well as public sector infrastructure projects awarded in the last quarter.
Projections for 2009 are, however, lower with construction demand likely to moderate to between $22 billion and $28 billion.
While this represents a decline of between 19-36 per cent, Minister of National Development Mah Bow Tan said: ‘The silver lining is that public sector demand for construction services will remain strong in the next few years’.
Mr Mah was speaking seminar organised by the Building and Construction Authourity (BCA) and the Real Estate Developers Association of Singapore (Redas).
BCA director (business development division William Tan also revealed that the public sector is expected to award a record $17 billion - $19 billion worth of contracts in 2009.
Private sector construction demand, on the other hand, is projected to moderate significantly to between $5 billion and $9 billion in 2009 from $20.1 billion in 2008.
To boost demand among small and medium sized construction firms, the government said that in addition, it will also roll out more smaller contracts of $50 million or below each.

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